Labour’s Benn calls for expulsion of Corbyn aide

Former South Croydon Labour Parliamentary candidate Emily Benn is pushing for the party to expel Jeremy Corbyn’s new policy chief Andrew Fisher.

Fisher has been under fire and is facing an official investigation for Twitter comments made in August last year, in which he seemingly urged for members of the electorate to vote for Jon Bigger, a candidate for far-left party Class War, something which is against Labour Party rules.

Benn, the granddaughter of late Labour MP Tony Benn and niece of Shadow Foreign Secretary Hilary Benn, has written to Labour’s general secretary arguing that Fisher’s tweets constitute campaigning for another party, which could warrant his expulsion.

Fisher’s comments followed some earlier claims made by local blog Inside Croydon that Benn’s campaign lacked effort and zeal.

Benn told The Guardian that she welcomes lively debate within the Labour Party, but feels Fisher’s tweets have overstepped the mark.

In images that have surfaced online, posts on Benn’s election social media account seem to advocate that women who did not agree with Corbyn’s Shadow Cabinet appointments should leave to join the Women’s Equality Party, with a number of online commenters accusing her of hypocrisy.

While Fisher’s comments appear damaging to morale, he was not policy chief at the time of posting, and Corbyn was not the Labour leader, although this has not ended the criticism of cronyism in Corbyn’s appointments to the Cabinet, and top job roles.

Fisher tonight pulled out of a speech to the Croydon Central Labour Party annual general meeting at the last minute.

The unravelling of Fisher’s comments have delivered another blow and sparked more internal dispute among members of the Labour Party, following the successive whip resignation of prominent former members Lord Warner and Lord Garbiner, who both cited disagreements with the direction of the new Labour leadership.

Croydon Labour has yet to respond to EastLondonLine’s request for a comment.